Spain was our favorite! So many things to love about Spain. Food, people, culture, food, art, the transportation system, and, definitely the food! After our little backpack debacle in Amsterdam, we were happy to finally finish the first leg of our EuroTrip and land in Barcelona. We got in around 7 pm and hopped in a taxi to get to our hotel, “ME Barcelona,” which was one of my favorites of the whole trip. The service, location, and our room was outstanding.
We got settled quickly, changed, and headed out to meet Nina’s cousin and her husband who happen to live in Spain and came to Barcelona to spend a few days with us. We had made late dinner reservations at a restaurant called La Pepita, a tapas restaurant, which turned out to be not too far from where we were staying so we set off on foot for a mile or so. This was one of our favorite spots of the whole trip for sure. Everything was delicious! The red shrimp croquettes were fire! The sardines were tasty… really, every single thing was next-level delicious. I had asked a few friends if they had heard of La Pepita and they enthusiastically told us YES! it was one of the better restaurants in Barcelona.
After dinner we stopped at a little pub close to our hotel for a cocktail before getting back to our hotel to hit the sack. Day 1 was a wrap. It was long, really long, and we were exhausted. Slept really good and woke up nice and refreshed for our first official day in Spain. We had a quick snack at our hotel’s breakfast, it was ok but they could definitely take it up a notch.
Day 1 Barcelona
On our first day in Barcelona, I did just over 30,000 steps according to my Garmin watch. So, we did a bit of walking. Loved walking Barcelona. Our hotel was super conveniently located so we pretty much walked everywhere and the few times that we did take a train, we were only a block away from the metro. The metro in Barcelona was amazing, so easy and efficient to use to get around this city. Our first stop was the La Boqueria Market. Such a cool market! Lots of tasty treats. I had a fresh fruit smoothie, Nina had a few nasty things that I wouldn’t eat lol like Sea Urchin and she had some fresh Jamón – cut right off the leg. Pretty cool.
After walking the market and having a few snacks, we sat down at a little cafe right next to the market for a quick espresso before heading off to the pier where we did some more walking and had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the bay/pier. One thing we missed out on and wish we would have done is ride the Transbordador Aeri del Port Cable Car that goes up to the top of a mountain called Montjuïc where there’s a castle. Next time!
Later in the evening we visited Montjuïc, the castle at the top of the cable car, so we ended up getting to see that anyway. Sunset here was beautiful!
Food and Cocktails
That evening we tried to go to a bar called Dr. Stravinsky in the Gothic Quarter which is in the World’s Top 50 bars. Stravinsky’s is really small and can be difficult to get into, and long waits can be expected. And that’s exactly what happened to us. Try to go earlier if you decide to try Dr. Stravinsky’s – at 9ish we were told it would probably be a few hour wait to get in. So we decided to skip it and go find somewhere for food.
Walking through the Gothic Quarter, we didn’t have to walk too far and happen to find a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant not too far from the bar and asked if they could get us in and they seated us immediately. When in Spain… gotta get the paella and I’m glad we did. This was hands down one of the best meals of our entire trip. The paella was insane! So tasty. The restaurant is called La Font de les Muses, definitely worth a visit for some paella. We hit a close-by bar for a cocktail before calling it an evening, it was a pretty big first day.
Our second day of exploring Barcelona
On our second day we visited Casa Batllo (the home of Antoni Gaudi). We booked the VIP tix for Casa Batllo though and I highly recommend doing it that way. You get expedited VIP entrance and access to the private residence and the outdoor lounge. Definitely worth it. The lines to get in were crazy and the VIP ticket is only $45 or so.
They say Gaudi ate magic mushrooms to inspire his work. It’s all pretty wild, so it makes sense! After Casa Batllo we went to a modern art museum called Moco Museum. Really enjoyed this spot, a lot of cool art on display from modern times.
We hit another paella spot for lunch. They had paella with pork and I got some kind of lobster potato dish. It was good enough, but it was nowhere near as tasty as the previous evening’s paella.
After our late lunch, we walked around Sagrada Familia which is the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world that the architect Antoni Gaudi designed. They’re still working on it, since 1882! We couldn’t get last-minute tickets to go inside or a tour, a good walk around to see it was good enough for us. If you need to go inside to see it, make sure to book in advance! That was pretty much a wrap on our second full day in Barcelona.
Getting outside Barcelona for the day
On day 3, we set off to visit the Montserrat Mountain Monastery outside of Barcelona. We took a train right from the station near our hotel to get there. One transfer to another train that goes to Montserrat. Our ticket included the cable car ride from the station up to the monastery. It was around $15 for both of us to ride the train out there and ride the cable car up and down and about a 45-minute train ride. Fun to get out of the city and see the Spanish countryside.
Our last evening
As soon as we got back to Barcelona, we sent off Nina’s cousin and her husband. They were headed home to the northern part of Spain. Then Nina and I found a much-needed foot massage spot and relaxed for a bit, was nice to take a load off! That evening we decided to try and go back to Dr. Stravinsky and see if we might be able to get in, and we did! We had to wait maybe 10 or so minutes, nothing crazy. Of course, I had to try their take on an old-fashioned. It was one of the best I can remember having. Everything they do here is made-to-order, artisanal, and many of the liquors they use are made in-house. They play with all kinds of unique flavors and smells to create some really tasty cocktails.
After we enjoyed a few drinks, we headed back to our hotel for our final evening in Barcelona. We stopped at the restaurant we had the delicious paella on the way and got a side of “chips” to go – a delicious late-night snack! They hand-cut a potato and fry it up. Basically just a potato chip, but there was something different and even more delicious about these.
Barcelona was a wrap, off to Paris next! Nina couldn’t resist one more serving of Jamón at the airport before we left.
